Introduction

Freemind is a mind-mapping tool, that is already integrated with a lot of wiki stuff.

FreeMind is in the Ubuntu repositories by default, but it is version 0.7.1 from 2004. Newer versions fix bugs and introduce significant new functionality.

Please also check the official FreeMind on Linux page, which contains much more details, FAQs and troubleshooting instructions.

Installing FreeMind from the Repository

This is the officially recommended method of installing FreeMind.

Navigate to System > Administration > Synaptic, under Settings > Repositories enable the multiverse repository. You now need to reload. Type freemind in the search box and select the checkbox next to freemind in the list. Apply your changes.

Currently, FreeMind is at version 0.7.1 for Ubuntu versions before 10.04 (Lucid Lynx). This version lacks significant functionality compared to the current version. There are open bugs related to this in bugs.launchpad.net (#182927) and in bugs.debian.org (#436206).

Install from .deb package

This method allows you to install newer versions of FreeMind. First choose the correct .deb file:

For FreeMind version 0.8.1 you can download the package from the FreeMind Sourceforge download page. This method has been tested with Ubuntu versions 8.04 (Hardy Heron), 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) and 9.04 beta (Jaunty Jacalope).

For FreeMind version 0.9.0 you can download the package from Launchpad. This is the i386 package. For other architectures see the full list of published versions

Once you have downloaded the file, double click on it and it should install with Gdebi.

Note: A working alternative method has been described by Arthur Penn .

From Alternative Repositories

Tested under Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) & Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn). The following does not work with Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron).

Run Freemind from the zip

This isn't how ubuntu folks like to do things, but for programs that are not maintained with up-to-date versions in their repositories, or any ppa repository, you can often easily run such programs if they are in java without "installing" them. Download the "bin-max" zip version of whichever freemind version you'd like. Unzip. To run Freemind in Linux (like Ubuntu), there are 2 good options. Before that, it is recommended that you create a folder called "Programs" or something where you can save java applications like Freemind, Freeplane, Cron-o-meter, etc. You should also rename the unzipped application folder that you place there to just "freemind", so you don't have to fix the directory paths in your launcher when you update the program version in the future.

Option 1. command line (terminal): open a terminal and change directory to the place where you put your unzipped Freemind folder, for example:

cd '/home/YOUR-USER-NAME/Programs/freemind'

then, run the freemind.sh:

sh 'freemind.sh'

Option 2. instead, you can make a nice little entry in your applications menu with the icon, which basically automates the above actions. This way is nice, because then you can launch it easily with GNOME Do or similar app launchers. To do this in Ubuntu (the process is similar in other distros: search for 'create launcher application' on google or something if you need to): Search online for image file: "freemind.png", download, save next to freemind folder. Open System>Preferences>Main Menu. In the options, navigate to the submenu location where you'd like it to go, such as "Office". Then click New Item, and create its launcher like so: To the left, click on the icon, and browse to the icon file freemind.png, select. For name, put Freemind, obviously. Then for command, enter this: